KZ650 cafe-racer

Wooooooow! Impressive, but also intimidating.

JL

katit wrote:

gazzz wrote: During the work of the engine outer and inner couplings squeeze rubbers by blades. And if uncompressed rubber is already fit tight between the bottoms of both couplings, being squeezed by blades it tries to expand in axial direction and therefore creates axial pressure on couplings. Add to this potential heat expansion and we’ll get a pretty plausible explanation why Kawasaki replaced longer damper rubbers with shorter ones in KZ750 models.

However, I wonder: why Kawasaki didn’t bother to indicate 92075-1227 as part number that supersedes 13098-029?

Did you confirm this part 92075-1227 works? 029 is NA and I am on a search as well

PS - Never mind, I found it in your post. Not sure how to delete this

If the edit button is still available just select all and cut. Then hit submit

Whoops, forgot to post...

Another batch of parts I polished for our Kawasaki KZ650 project engine. It so happened that once, rummaging through ebay I came across New Old Stock clutch cover. It looked like a good deal so I bought it. Factory polishing was part of the mass production process thus it never intended to be brilliant, and sure, this clutch cover, being stored for 40 years, has got some number of scratches during its “shelf life”. Here you may see how it looked in the beginning of sandpapering. Scratches and factory non polished areas are quite visible:

Polishing revealed some unevenness of alloy, but it’s a pretty ordinary thing even for more modern cast parts. However, I was satisfied with result:

I was forced to work accurately on lettering, since they are pretty thin, but result like this will do for me.



And talking of reflection, it was hard not to notice them during photo shooting:-)



Bit closer:

Reflection of my world:



And of myself:

However, let’s proceed to smaller parts, like breather cover or plugs for the main oil gallery. Here they are, plugs before sandpapering and breather cover already in process:



Plugs were pretty rough and since they have to be tightened by wrench, I couldn’t take much aluminum from them.



But the result looked much better even with such limitations.

Same I could say about breather cover. Here is it in comparison with another non treated KZ650 breather cover I have in my possession:



Not perfect since I didn’t sanded out all corrosion dots, but I think it will do:



At this point I ran out of parts for polishing because the ignition cover turned out to be beyond saving and this fact caused change in my plans about ignition and alternator covers.

gazzz wrote: At this point I ran out of parts for polishing.

I can ship some to you...

But, jokes aside, how do you plan to maintain this finish? My understanding is that bare aluminum even polished will dull overtime.

Stunning comparison. Scrolling through the rough product photos, and then bam, the next photo is of a pristine fresh item. Great presentation of flawless work.

katit wrote:

gazzz wrote: At this point I ran out of parts for polishing.

I can ship some to you...

But, jokes aside, how do you plan to maintain this finish? My understanding is that bare aluminum even polished will dull overtime.

The polisher I use recommended Zephyr signature series Pro25. I’d like comments on it if anyone has used it. My polished parts are still under wraps not installed yet.

All my motorcycles have polished aluminum parts. With initial polishing done it's not that hard to keep aluminum shining. Liquid polishing compounds will vary from region to region, but the principle is same: your bike, your hands, some polish, some rags.